Kern River Festival- Brush Creek Extreme Race and Kern River Slalom Race a fun time

April 19, 2006

California is treating the Jackson’s and Team Jackson Kayak well. Our first stop was at Kernville, home of Sierra South Kayak Shop, with Tom (owner) and Paul (Hot Rod) the top sales guy and regional team member as our hosts.

This year’s competitions was the Brush Creek Extreme Race organized by last year’s winner Eric Giddens (1996 and 2000 Olympian in slalom) and his lovely wife Rebbeca Giddens (2004 Silver medalist in the Olympics).

The race is a steep (400 feet/mile) 2.5 minute race down waterfalls, slides, and cool rapids. The start is just above the 15 footer and ends at the bottom of “Slip and Slide”.

Emily, Dane, and I got in 6 runs before the race, 1 with Eric and Rebecca, 2 per day the next two days, and 1 the morning of the race (the water went up from rain that night). We were ready for the race and knew our lines pretty well. Jay Kincaid was also there and although he only got in three runs, he knew it well too.

It was fun to watch Jason Hale, Little Dave, Tyler Curtis, Eric Giddens, Jay Kincaid, more take off from the starting line in a flurry of strokes. Emily, Marianne (from Norway), Jessie Rice, and Christie Glissmeyer all got off and running with a bang. Christie got her bow caught by a hole at the top of the 15 footer and went over it backwards, whoa!

My run was good from the top to the bottom. I goofed up little things but nothing major. The big drops I did well in and the little ones I had to read and run for the most part and I didn’t always read fast enough to be perfectly on line. However I got to the end of the run and knew that it would take a really strong run to beat mine and fortunately for me, my new course record of 2:16 was enough to take first place in my Super Hero. Little Dave got second in a prototype and Jay Kincaid got third in his Rocker. Last Year’s winner, Eric Giddens had a bobble and a flip and didn’t finish as strong as he could have.

In the Women’s class Rebecca Giddens won her second year in a row and Emily finished second place.

Dane took the middle of the pack of the men’s class.

Got to go, fun day!

🙂 EJ